Brand Finance at Davos 2024

David is the Chairman and CEO of Brand Finance Plc – the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy. He has worked in the area of branded business, brand, and intangible asset valuation since 1991. He specialised entirely in the field after becoming the Director of Brand Valuation for Interbrand in 1995. He subsequently left Interbrand in 1996 to launch Brand Finance which is celebrating 25 years in business this year.

David represented the British Standards Institution in the working parties responsible for crafting international industry standards: ISO 10668 on Brand Valuation in 2010 and ISO 20671 on Brand Evaluation in 2019.

David is a passionate writer and has authored many articles on brand valuation, published in numerous marketing and finance newspapers and magazines, such as: Financial Times, Accountancy Age, and Marketing Week. He has also lectured on the topic of brand valuation for Harvard, Chicago, and London Business Schools.

David graduated from Bristol University with an English degree, qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse in London, and obtained a postgraduate diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). He is a Fellow of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and has a practising certificate with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

Richard has over a decade in value-based marketing, brand valuation and intangible asset valuation. He sat on the ISO Technical Committee 289 on Brand Valuation and contributed to the Brand Evaluation standard ISO 20671. He lectures on brand valuation and other topics to business schools and has a regular guest lecture series at London Business School.

While at Brand Finance he has overseen an array of the internal initiatives and studies while also leading many of the client relationships. With experience from B2B and B2C industries and brands, Richard has worked across all of Brand Finance’s service lines as a Chartered Accountant (ACA) and member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing but particularly specialises in valuation.

In addition, he has a BA in Mathematics from the University of Oxford.

Mike is a global authority on brand economics and valuation, with extensive experience of helping businesses grow by maximising the value creation potential of their brands.

He has over 20 years of experience across a wide range of branding challenges, leading assignments on brand-led growth, brand-related cost savings, brand-based negotiations and transactions, and expert witness work for disputes.

His experience of leading teams of analysts on the evaluation of brand strength and value for the world’s most valuable brands gives him unique insight into the factors that drive brand success globally.

Prior to joining Brand Finance, Mike was the global lead for the brand economics practice at Interbrand. He has a broad range of experience across many sectors, with clients including Allianz, AXA, British Gas, BUPA, Ericsson, Goldman Sachs, Hertz, Hyundai, Kia, Mastercard, Orange, PayPal, Samsung, Standard Chartered Bank, Virgin, among others.

Mike studied Economics at Cambridge University and is a Chartered Marketer and Chartered Accountant, having qualified with Arthur Andersen in London. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, ICAEW Valuation Group and Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Leonard works with our key clients to help maximise the value that we deliver, working collaboratively with client teams to understand their challenges and objectives and create solutions.
His professional experience spans more than 15 years and has included client-oriented marketing and relationship management roles in large financial and professional services organisations.
He works at a strategic and operational level, reapplying insights gained from exposure to a wide variety of different strategies, processes and ideas.
Leonard holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Adelaide University.

Konrad leads Brand Finance’s place branding and soft power practice. He liaises with clients, directs consulting projects, and is responsible for the creation and promotion of the annual Global Soft Power Index, Nation Brands, and City Index studies.

Konrad has extensive experience in advising clients in the fields of place branding and public diplomacy. Before joining Brand Finance, he worked at the Polish Embassy in London where he developed and delivered successful marketing communications campaigns as well as media relations programmes of official engagements by the president, prime minister, government ministers, and the ambassador.

In his role at Brand Finance, Konrad has advised a variety of place branding organisations, including the GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland Campaign, New Zealand Story, and Cape Town Tourism.

Before moving on to grow the place branding practice, Konrad was the Communications Director of Brand Finance and Managing Director of Brand Finance’s PR agency – Brand Dialogue for 5 years. He has a proven track record in executing integrated communications strategies, having been responsible for publishing nearly 100 industry and country reports on the world’s most valuable brands on an annual basis.

Konrad has qualified with the Professional PR Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR). He studied European Studies MA at King’s College London and the Humboldt University in Berlin, and International Relations with Political Science BA at the University of Birmingham.

Artur joined Brand Finance in 2018 after graduating from the King's College London in Political Economy. Artur is currently a Level III Candidate for the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) programme. Artur is fluent in three languages - English, Russian and Ukrainian. Artur has experience in valuation, strategy, market research analysis for clients including Chevron, Rockwool, Iberia, Etihad, and stc. Artur also has experience in Brand Finance’s sports services offering, in particular, measurement and return on investment projects with global clients like Formula 1. Currently, Artur leads place branding projects at Brand Finance. In particular, the Global Soft Power Index and Brand Finance City Index.

Scott co-founded Brand Finance China where he is currently Managing Director for the company. Over the past 3 years he has led the China team, jointly with the UK headquarters and other international offices branches of Brand Finance, to lay a solid foundation for the Greater China business. Scott is involved in project discovery, pitching, planning, technology input and final delivery across all China related projects, both domestically and internationally.

Scott has more than 25 years of experience in branding and marketing services within China where he experienced the start of Chinese branding from the 1980s after China's Opening Up Policy, and subsequently accumulated rich knowledge and expertise of the Chinese market. In addition to this, Scott has spent over 10 years both studying and working in the UK where he undertook his Postgraduate and Doctoral studies in Finance and Investment. His experience includes financial management and project investment for a world class insurance group and project management for global giants such as State Grid, Apple, Alibaba, Shell and COFCO, etc.

In addition to this, Scott is responsible for the daily management and operation of all other areas of Brand Finance China. He holds thorough expertise in technology, brand valuation and the strategic consulting for brand value growth and it is this unique vantage point of the Chinese market that gives Scott the ability to spot new opportunities and strengthen networks continuously and steadily in the region.

Martin Shi serves as the Assistant to Managing Director at Brand Finance China, Scott Chen. He oversees the office administration, corporate strategy and business development, which provides evidence-based analysis to advise senior management on issues relevant to ensuring business in China. Prior to this role, Martin was a Senior Credit Risk Analyst in a global leading insurance group. Applying insights obtained from a broad range of market data sets, data analytics, geo-spatial intelligence capabilities across sovereigns and industries to identify credit risks and to isolate root drivers of instability to the business. Prior to that, Martin also served in several roles in a global leading information technology company, as well as two years of work experience in a top British multinational banking and financial services holding company. Mr. Shi received a MA in Applied Mathematics from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and a BA in International Finance and Banking from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

Sofia joined Brand Finance as Strategy & Sustainability Consultant after completing her MSc In Environmental Economics & Climate Change at the London School of Economics. During her time at Brand Finance, she has worked on a variety of sustainability research and consulting projects.

Prior to joining Brand Finance and moving to London from the Chicago area, Sofia spent two years at a boutique ESG management consulting firm. She also holds joint BAs in Economics and Sustainability from Miami University (Ohio).